Banabi, by Maurizio Piraccini, is an audio-visual pedagogic gaming experience for young children. The game uses the kids’ position on the floor as input to control the game.
Funny square creatures are projected onto a 2.8×2.1m playground. The child steps on the playground and interacts with the little creatures. The animals react to the child’s position, which is tracked by a web-cam. In the beginning the creatures run away from the child, later on they “get used” to her/him.
When the creatures come next to the child, they start playing fragments of a musical loop. Each fragment is a different track of the same music. Following a single animal, the children will hear a separate aspect of the song. If the child achieves to gather more creatures around him/her, s/he will hear a more complex and complete melody.
Since the game does not require to understand the handling of any input devices, it provides a natural way to involve very young children into an “artificial environment”.